Londoners Cast Wary Eye To 2012 Games
As the Olympics ended Sunday in Beijing with a spectacular display of choreography and fireworks, Londoners wondered if their city -- facing budget constraints -- will be spruced up in four years, let alone match Beijing's elaborate opening and closing ceremonies.
The three-hour closing ceremony was watched live on outdoor TV screens in some 30 cities and towns across Britain, including London, where 40,000 people attended an Olympic-dedicated rock concert outside Buckingham Palace. Adding star power, U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps made an appearance at the concert, backed by one of his sponsors, credit-card company Visa.
London offered a taste of what to expect when it hosts the Olympics in 2012. In an eight-minute segment of the closing ceremony reserved for the next Olympic host, it put on a display of popular British culture, its casual creativity contrasting with Beijing's mega-choreography. A red double-decker bus drove into the Bird's Nest stadium, its roof folding back to reveal soccer player David Beckham and Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page playing one of the band's hits, 'Whole Lotta Love.'
Even as Britain basks in the success of its athletes in Beijing -- it ranked fourth in gold medals after China, the U.S. and Russia -- its bad track record at public construction projects and slowing economy are prompting some concern about hosting the Olympics in 2012.
Already some members of the London Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, or Locog, are damping public expectations. But London's new mayor, Boris Johnson, said in an interview, 'We are not remotely intimidated by what the Chinese have done but we do admire and respect it.'
One of the top priorities: improving the reliability of the city's transportation network. The city's trains frequently break down, the narrow roads are crowded, and the airports are often short staffed. Mr. Johnson, who accepted the official Olympic flag in Beijing at Sunday's ceremony, says he recently spent so long waiting for his bags at Gatwick Airport he offered to unload them himself.
If the Beijing 2008 Olympics were seen as China's coming-out party as a world power, Britain is looking to the Olympics as an urban development project, rebuilding an area in East London used as landfill for Blitz rubble from World War II. Since then, the blighted area has been filled with electricity towers, railroad tracks and garbage-strewn streams.
The U.K. plan faces budget constraints. Britain, with its heavy dependence on banking, has been hit hard by the global credit crisis, its real-estate market is tumbling, and it faces a budget deficit. The government has set the Olympics budget at GBP 9.3 billion ($17.2 billion), which includes construction as well as operating the Games, far below Beijing's estimated $42 billion.
As well, security is a big concern in London, which was hit by terrorist attacks in recent years. London expects to spend about GBP 600 million on security during the Games, with more funds set aside for emergencies, according to the government's published budget.
About 100 London organizing committee staff spent the Olympics in Beijing to learn up close how the Games work. London's Olympics Chairman Lord Sebastian Coe, a gold-medalist runner himself, visited all Olympics venues in Beijing and got frequent briefings from the hosts on issues including technology and athletes' facilities, his spokeswoman says. In November, Beijing Olympics officials plan to meet their London counterparts to discuss what went wrong and what worked.
The opening ceremony 'won't be about matching' Beijing, says Charles Allen, a member of the Locog board.
Mr. Allen says 'inclusiveness' will be a theme for the Olympics in London, and the opening ceremony will represent all Britain's races, religions and classes. Organizers may not hire an artistic director for the opening and closing ceremonies for another two years.
But suggestions are piling up. Ric Birch, who produced the Sydney and Barcelona opening ceremonies, says London should use humor such as an appearance by Monty Python, an English comedy ensemble from the 1970s. In posts on British Web sites, many people have said London should emphasize its cultural heritage, such as Shakespeare, the Beatles, or designer Vivienne Westwood.
Some Londoners are already griping the Games will cost too much. 'It's becoming like an arms race of who can burn the most fireworks,' says Stuart Dennison, the manager of a bicycle shop in central London.
And tourists will find London expensive. High prices for hotels, restaurants and taxis make London the world's third-most expensive city, behind Moscow and Tokyo, according to Mercer, a consulting firm.
Meanwhile, in Stratford, the area of London that will house the Olympic Village, bulldozers and construction workers are currently cleaning up the site for the Olympic Stadium, a swimming pool, and velodrome. After the Games, the government plans to convert 1.5 million square feet of space into offices, and leave behind a large public park and about 3,300 apartments, which it hopes will become a flourishing community.
So far, London's preparations are as far advanced as Beijing was four years out, according to the International Olympic Commission, which sent inspectors here a few months ago.
Aaron O. Patrick
The three-hour closing ceremony was watched live on outdoor TV screens in some 30 cities and towns across Britain, including London, where 40,000 people attended an Olympic-dedicated rock concert outside Buckingham Palace. Adding star power, U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps made an appearance at the concert, backed by one of his sponsors, credit-card company Visa.
London offered a taste of what to expect when it hosts the Olympics in 2012. In an eight-minute segment of the closing ceremony reserved for the next Olympic host, it put on a display of popular British culture, its casual creativity contrasting with Beijing's mega-choreography. A red double-decker bus drove into the Bird's Nest stadium, its roof folding back to reveal soccer player David Beckham and Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page playing one of the band's hits, 'Whole Lotta Love.'
Even as Britain basks in the success of its athletes in Beijing -- it ranked fourth in gold medals after China, the U.S. and Russia -- its bad track record at public construction projects and slowing economy are prompting some concern about hosting the Olympics in 2012.
Already some members of the London Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, or Locog, are damping public expectations. But London's new mayor, Boris Johnson, said in an interview, 'We are not remotely intimidated by what the Chinese have done but we do admire and respect it.'
One of the top priorities: improving the reliability of the city's transportation network. The city's trains frequently break down, the narrow roads are crowded, and the airports are often short staffed. Mr. Johnson, who accepted the official Olympic flag in Beijing at Sunday's ceremony, says he recently spent so long waiting for his bags at Gatwick Airport he offered to unload them himself.
If the Beijing 2008 Olympics were seen as China's coming-out party as a world power, Britain is looking to the Olympics as an urban development project, rebuilding an area in East London used as landfill for Blitz rubble from World War II. Since then, the blighted area has been filled with electricity towers, railroad tracks and garbage-strewn streams.
The U.K. plan faces budget constraints. Britain, with its heavy dependence on banking, has been hit hard by the global credit crisis, its real-estate market is tumbling, and it faces a budget deficit. The government has set the Olympics budget at GBP 9.3 billion ($17.2 billion), which includes construction as well as operating the Games, far below Beijing's estimated $42 billion.
As well, security is a big concern in London, which was hit by terrorist attacks in recent years. London expects to spend about GBP 600 million on security during the Games, with more funds set aside for emergencies, according to the government's published budget.
About 100 London organizing committee staff spent the Olympics in Beijing to learn up close how the Games work. London's Olympics Chairman Lord Sebastian Coe, a gold-medalist runner himself, visited all Olympics venues in Beijing and got frequent briefings from the hosts on issues including technology and athletes' facilities, his spokeswoman says. In November, Beijing Olympics officials plan to meet their London counterparts to discuss what went wrong and what worked.
The opening ceremony 'won't be about matching' Beijing, says Charles Allen, a member of the Locog board.
Mr. Allen says 'inclusiveness' will be a theme for the Olympics in London, and the opening ceremony will represent all Britain's races, religions and classes. Organizers may not hire an artistic director for the opening and closing ceremonies for another two years.
But suggestions are piling up. Ric Birch, who produced the Sydney and Barcelona opening ceremonies, says London should use humor such as an appearance by Monty Python, an English comedy ensemble from the 1970s. In posts on British Web sites, many people have said London should emphasize its cultural heritage, such as Shakespeare, the Beatles, or designer Vivienne Westwood.
Some Londoners are already griping the Games will cost too much. 'It's becoming like an arms race of who can burn the most fireworks,' says Stuart Dennison, the manager of a bicycle shop in central London.
And tourists will find London expensive. High prices for hotels, restaurants and taxis make London the world's third-most expensive city, behind Moscow and Tokyo, according to Mercer, a consulting firm.
Meanwhile, in Stratford, the area of London that will house the Olympic Village, bulldozers and construction workers are currently cleaning up the site for the Olympic Stadium, a swimming pool, and velodrome. After the Games, the government plans to convert 1.5 million square feet of space into offices, and leave behind a large public park and about 3,300 apartments, which it hopes will become a flourishing community.
So far, London's preparations are as far advanced as Beijing was four years out, according to the International Olympic Commission, which sent inspectors here a few months ago.
Aaron O. Patrick
特寫
倫敦人低調展望2012年奧運會
周
日，在壯觀的舞蹈和煙花表演中，北京奧運會落下帷幕；而倫敦人卻在考慮自己的城市──在預算捉襟見肘的情況下──能否在四年之內準備到位，更不用說與北京精心準備的開、閉幕式表演媲美了。英 國倫敦等30多個市鎮設置了戶外大屏幕，實時直播了歷時三小時的北京奧運會閉幕式，還有4萬人參加了白金漢宮外的奧運主題搖滾音樂會。信用卡公司Visa 讚助了此次音樂會；該公司簽約的美國遊泳明星邁克爾﹒菲爾普斯(Michael Phelps)也在音樂會上露面，使得音樂會更加星光燦爛。
Getty Images
一輛倫敦雙層巴士出現在北京奧運會
閉幕式上
閉幕式上
雖然英國運動員在北京奧運會上大獲成功──在金牌榜上名列第四，僅次於中國、美國和俄羅斯；但考慮到英國在公共建築項目方面糟糕的紀錄和經濟增長放緩的不利形勢，外界還是對倫敦能否成功舉辦2012年奧運會存在一些疑慮。
倫敦奧組委的一些成員已經在淡化公眾的期望。但倫敦新任市長鮑裡斯﹒約翰遜(Boris Johnson)接受採訪時表示，我們並沒有被中國人所做的事情嚇倒，但我們確實對此十分敬佩。
籌備工作的頭等大事之一就包括改善倫敦交通系統的可靠性。倫敦的地鐵經常出問題，狹窄的道路擁堵不堪，機場也常常人手不足。在周日的閉幕式上接過了奧林匹克旗幟的約翰遜曾經說起他最近有一次在Gatwick機場等行李的時間實在太長了，以至於他提出自己去卸行李。
如果說中國將2008年北京奧運會視作展示其世界強國形像的盛會，那英國則是希望以奧運會為契機，發展城市建設項目，重建東倫敦的一個地區。該地區在二戰時遭受德國閃電戰空襲，現成為一片填埋場。自那以後，這片被破壞的地區就遍布著電塔、鐵路軌道和滿是垃圾的河流。
英國的籌辦計劃面臨著預算緊張的困難。嚴重依賴銀行業的英國在全球信貸危機中遭受沉重打擊，房地產市場崩潰，還面臨預算赤字。英國政府設定的奧運會預算為93億英鎊（合172億美元），包括建設和運作奧運會的費用，遠遠低於北京所預計的420億美元。
同時，安全也是倫敦的一大問題，近年來，倫敦屢屢遭受恐怖主義襲擊。據政府公布的預算，奧運會期間，倫敦預計將在安全方面耗資6億英鎊，並將為緊急事件準備更多資金。
London 2012
一位藝術家設計的倫敦水上中心的效果圖，這
也是為2012年奧運會新修建的設施之一
也是為2012年奧運會新修建的設施之一
倫敦奧組委成員查爾斯﹒艾倫(Charles Allen)說，倫敦奧運會開幕式不會刻意與北京相比。
艾倫表示，“包容性”將會是倫敦奧運會的主題之一，開幕式將體現英國所有種族、宗教和階層。組織者們或許不會繼續雇用藝術導演來籌劃開幕式和閉幕式。
但 各方建議越來越多。執導過悉尼和巴塞羅納奧運會開幕式的裡克﹒伯奇(Ric Birch)說，倫敦應當加入幽默元素，比如讓上世紀70年代的英國喜劇團體Monty Python亮相。在英國一些網站的貼子中，許多人都表示倫敦應當突出其文化遺產，比如莎士比亞、披頭士樂隊(Beatles)或是設計師薇薇安﹒魏斯伍 德(Vivienne Westwood)。
一些倫敦人已經在抱怨奧運會成本太高。倫敦市中心一家自行車商店的經理斯圖爾特﹒丹尼森(Stuart Dennison)說，這簡直就像是軍備競賽，比比誰放的煙花最多。
旅遊者也會面臨著倫敦的高昂物價。據咨詢公司Mercer的信息，酒店、餐館和出租車的高昂價格令倫敦的生活成本高居全球第三，僅次於莫斯科和東京。
與 此同時，在倫敦奧運村所在地斯特拉特福德(Stratford)，推土機和建築工人目前正在清理場地，為體育場、遊泳池以及自行車室內賽車場的建設做準 備。奧運會後，政府計劃將150萬平方英尺的奧運村場地改為寫字樓，並留下一個大公園和大約3,300套公寓，希望這裡能發展為一個繁榮的社區。
國際奧委會(IOC)幾個月前曾派檢查人員到倫敦查看準備工作的進展情況。他們表示，倫敦目前的準備工作進程與四年前的北京一樣。
Aaron O. Patrick
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